Lactation Muffins

So this is my first blog post.  I've been telling myself for years that I don't have time for a blog, but here I am.  I'm not much of a cook, but I like to bake.  I am a proud breastfeeding mama -- nursed my oldest until he self-weaned just before his 2nd birthday, nursed my twin daughters until I found out I was pregnant with my youngest and then decided to wean them.  They were 25 months.  We went slowly and they were peacefully weaned by 26-27 months.  I now nurse my youngest, who is 16 months at the time of this post.  When my twins were about 9 months old, an urgent request went out to the mom's group I was a part of for pumped breastmilk.  A newborn baby girl named Sara had lost her mother suddenly and needed milk.  So I started pumping what I could.  I didn't produce much extra since I was already nursing 2 babies, but I donated what I could.  An organization was soon born to provide donor breastmilk for babies in need.  You can read all about it here:  http://getpumpedonline.org/.

After my second son was born, I began pumping again.  I don't tend to over or under produce so it was never a large amount, but I did what I could.  I found that if I took breaks from pumping (which I tend to do often), it helped to take a supplement of some sort to help my body start producing extra milk again.  I love Traditional Medicinals' Mother's Milk Tea but didn't always have it on hand.  Fenugreek seeds also really seemed to help.  A few months ago, I came across the idea of lactation cookies.  I love cookies.  Problem is, my kids don't tolerate dairy well and I don't eat a lot of wheat.  Gluten and dairy free lactation cookies DO exist, but they cost more than I can spend on cookies.  I looked for recipes for cookies and muffins but didn't find anything that jumped out at me.  So I came up with my own.  The key ingredients are the oats, flax seed meal and brewer's yeast.  These aren't particularly healthy with 1/2 cup of sugar, but you could always decrease the amount of sugar to make them less sweet or substitute with a healthier sweetener.  

These muffins have worked well for me to increase supply and they're yummy too!  If you try them, let me know what you think and if there's anything you'd change.  Thanks for reading!

Wheat-free, Dairy-free Lactation Muffins

Dry Ingredients:

½ cup brown rice flour

½ cup white rice flour (or just use one cup brown rice flour)

¼ cup tapioca flour

1/3 cup potato starch

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup rolled oats (can use gluten-free oats)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

¼ teaspoon salt

3 Tablespoons flax seed meal

3 Tablespoons brewer’s yeast

Wet Ingredients:

1/3 cup coconut oil

1 cup applesauce

1 Tablespoon ground chia seed

3 Tablespoons water

¼ cup almond or rice milk

¼ cup each coconut, walnuts and cranberries (optional)

Preaheat oven to 350°.  Mix dry ingredients (#1-12) together in large bowl.  Then mix wet ingredients #13-17 together in small bowl.  Add wet ingredient to dry ingredients, mix well.  Stir in coconut, cranberries and nuts.  Use coconut oil to grease your muffin pan. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Makes one dozen.